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GOV. SW ANN'S SPEECH 



AT THE 



CONSERVATIVE 

MASS MEETING, 

m MONUMENT SQUARE, 

Tliiirsd.ay, June SI, 1@66. 






My Fellow-Citizens : 

I have been invited to preside over this meeting, 
and I am here to-night in accordance with that invita- 
tion. I congratulate you upon this great outpouring 
of the conservative masses of the City of Baltimore. 
The appearance of this meeting is the more gratifying 
to me because it has been called specially to endorse 
the reconstruction policy of President Johnson, and the 
humble part which I have taken in giving it my 
unqualified approval. You were told that in taking 
this step I would be left without a "corporal's guard" 
in this State. Now, I should like to know what radical 
Major-Geueral could muster a larger force than the 
"corporal" has drawn around him in this vast assemblage 
of his fellow-citizens. If this is the definition of a 
corporaVs guard, I should like to know, my friends, 
what you understand by an army. I propose to speak 
to-night, not only for this vast assemblage here present 
but for the people of the whole State, and I shall speak 
in such terms that those who agree, as well as those who 
differ with me in political sentiment, may have no 
ground for misunderstanding or misrepresentation 
hereafter. ♦ 



Some time ago it became my duty, in order to prevent 
misunderstanding in the future, to publish in the ^'Ameri- 
can" a denial of any autliorized use of ray name by certain 
persons in Washington County in fraternization with those 
who had been invited to repudiate the action of the Uncon- 
ditional Union State Central Committee to divide and break 
up the Union party in this State. I also announced my 
purpose to sustain the reconstruction policy of President 
Johnson, as I had done in January last, and my repugnance 
to any co-operation with extremists and radicals. 

In making this announcement I desired to be understood 
as occupying a conservative, middle position, between those 
who were endeavoring to drive us into universal negro suf- 
frage on the one side and the support of Disunionists on the 
other. 

It cannot have escaped the notice of Union men in Mary- 
land, tliat for some time past the complications growing up 
in the Union ranks were assuming a most grave and serious 
aspect. 

The result has been that an almost irreconcilable breach 
has taken place — a minority o^ four gentlemen of the Execu- 
tive Committee of the Union State Central Committee having 
undertaken to engineer a party for themselves, and to form 
a new organization. 

This neiu party, already in the field, have gone forth as 
propagandists of the most ultra doctrines, which, for six 
months past, have kept this country in a state of painful 
solicitude and suspense. 

They have fraternized almost exclusively with negro suf- 
frage radicals, and have endorsed the reconstruction report 
of the Committee of fifteen in the lead of Mr. Stevens, when 
Congress has ignored and thrown aside its substantial and 
leading features. 

No party can preserve its organization without a recog- 
nized official head within the State to regulate its movements, 
and, when necessary, to call conventions of the people. 



The Union State Central Committee liris always been the 
()rjj;an of the ])arty. There is no ])<)\ver hut the people, within 
the period (or which it is cliosen, to supersede it, unless by 
resoit to revolutionary measures. The point made by the 
founders of this neiv parh/ assumed tliat the Chairman of the 
Committee was opposed to calling a meetini; ot th(^ General 
Committee. However this may be, it seems that the General 
Committee teas called, on a day even in advance of what these 
gentlemen desired. Up(Ui what legitimate ground, then, do 
these seceders trom the regular organization stand before the 
people? Their call of a convention was entitled to no more 
wei'-ht than that of any other four gentlemen, who, believ- 
iut^ themselves strong eno'ugh to rule the State, take it into 
their heads to j)lace themselves beyond the government of 
their ])arty and invoke the people to aid them in a general 
break up. If we desire to maintain the organization of the 
party we must adhere to its government and its usages. 

In opposing this irregular and disorganizing movement, 
1 am denounced by the whole jmck of extreme negro suffrage 
radi( als, from one end of the State to the other. I have been 
subjected to the most barefaced misrepresentations and the 
grossest personal abuse, to which 1 should only degrade my- 
self if I attempted to reply. For my support of Mr. John- 
son's reconstruction policy — endorsed by the Legislature in 
Januarv last — I am denounced as a traitor to the party that 
elected me, and my friends who do not come up to the full 
radical standard are summarily read out of the party, as 
either Copj)erheads or Disuuionists. The gallant Colonel of 
the Seventh Maryland Regiment, who vacated his seat in 
Con<Mes8 to give his services to his country, is a disunionist; 
the brave Gen'l Phelps, who at the head of his advancing 
column, fell wounded and bleeding upon the field of the Wil- 
derness, under the flag which he was defending M'ith hie 
life's blood, is a disunionist; the intrepid Bowerman, who 
has done more for his country than this whole radical com- 
bination put together, is a disunionist; that war-worn vete- 
ran General Horn, one of Maryland's bravest sons, is a dis- 



unionist; the ex-Governor of your State, who stood at the 
heliu (luring the most excited and trying period of the rebel- 
lion, and wlio never faltered in the discharge of any duty 
imposed by his responsible position, to whom we are indebted 
for our free Constitution, more perhaps than any otlier man, 
is a disunlonist; I, wiio stood by that old patriot, Governor 
Hicks, on the 19th of April, aiding him by my counsels until 
he was overwhelmed by the jjowt-r of Secessionists and traitors, 
wliile some of the most prominent of these radicals were re- 
sisting the passage of the Massachusetts troops through the 
City of Baltimore, running away from the city, or skulking in 
secret liiding places, I am a disunionist. The army and the 
navy, who sujjport President Johnson almost to a*man, are 
disunioni^ts in the eyes of these brave and gallant radicals. 
General Grant and General Siierman are both disunionists, 
and the only truly loyal and reliable men to be trusted in 
this State are the leaders of tliis neioparhj. 

Now I would ask you, my friends, in the midst of the abuse 
which I have so innocently provoked, which is now being 
stimulated and kept alive by men belonging or professing to 
belong to the Union party, with whom I have heretofore 
co-operated, what do they find in my [)resent position or past 
antecedents to [jlace me in league with co|)perheads and dis- 
unionists ? In discus.sing these issues I shall not follow the 
examj)le of the Convention which met a few evenings since in 
the Front Street Theatre in this city. I shall indulge in no 
war of abuse. I have no unkind feelinij;s towards these extreme 
radical men, not the .^lightest. I would rather win them 
over by an appeal to their reason and good sense than goad 
and irritate them by vulgar abuse. Many of them, I believe, 
are sincere and honest in their convictions of duty. I am 
quite content that the people shall deal with tlvem, without 
prcjuuice from me. The unjust, unkind and ungenerous 
attack made upon me by the Hon. John L. Thomas — too 
weak in arginuent to be seriously controverted here — I shall 
notice no fuitiier tlian to ex[)ress the deep regret it occtisioued 
on his own account. 



In referring to the pride with which, at the radical meet- 
ing at tlie Assenihly Kooms with his newly acquired negro 
suffrage friends, lie stood where the Hon. Henry Winter 
Davis had once addressed the people of Baltimore, his 
memory surely could not have been so treacherous as not to 
have reminded him of his life-long opposition to that dis- 
tinguislied gentleman, wlio, in his Chicago speech, placed 
himself and his i'riends squarely upon the platform of univer- 
aal negro suffrage. Surely tliis could not have inspired the 
complacent satisfaction and swelling pride witli which Mr. 
Thomas flourished upon the stand rendered sacred and 
memorable by the presence, in times past, of that great radi- 
cal leadei^ 

During the called session of the Legislature iu January 
last, tlie resolutions endorsing President Johnson's recon- 
struction policy were passed by both branches of that body. 
The vote stood as follows: In the Senate — in the affirma- 
tive — Messrs. Billingslea of Carroll, Billingsley of St. Mary's 
Clark, Earle, Eaton, Frazier, Jenkins, Lansdale, Mackall, 
McMaster, McNeal, Philpot, Stephenson, Trail, Turner, 
Vickers, Waters, Wells, Whitney — 19. Negative — Messrs. 
Davis of Caroline, Davis of Washington, Holton, Ohr, 
Toiae — 5. In the House of Delegates — in the affirma- 
tive — Messrs. Frazier, Speaker; Barron, Brown, Calvert, 
Cairns, Chew, Comegys, Everhart, Fooks, Fawcett, Foster, 
Harris, Hazen, Hodson, Hoffman, Hopkins, .Hynes, Jame- 
son, Jones, Keeper, King, Lusby, oMalone, Miller of Anne 
Arundel, Mules, Nairne, Norris, Parker, Poteet, Rider, 
Roberts, Robinson, Shory, Silver, Slothower, Smith of Alle- 
gany, Super Stewart, Stone, Tolson, Tull, Usilton, Warner, 
Williams, Willis, Wilson, Wooden, Zeigler — 48. In the 
negative — Angel, Bartlett, Buhrman, Cronise, Cummings, 
Darling, Dean, Eavey, Garrison, Hambleton, Kirk, Leav- 
erton, Lee, Markey, McCullougb, Miller of Washington, 
Pennington, Pilkington, Rinehart, Shaw, Smith of Fred- 
erick, Valliant, Wardwell — 24. 

We were not denounced as disuuionists and traitors then. 



These resolutions were based upon the views presented in ray 
annual message. I certainly made no secret of my opinions 
at that time. On the contrary, my message was noticed as 
being so full and unmistakable, as toleave no doubt as to 
my political status. It may be proper to refer to one or two 
passages from that message. 

" The work of restoring the States to their former status 
in such a crisis was one of the greatest delicacy and respon- 
sibility. Five millions of our deluded brethren, many of 
whom had been forced into hostility to the Union by crafty 
and designing demagogues, accepting the stern arbitrament 
of the sword, appealed for amnesty and pardon and expressed 
their readiness to renew their allegiance to the flag which 
they had so wantonly assailed. There were also those, few 
in number it may be, in every State who had never changed 
the relation of loyalty in which they stood to the Govern- 
ment, whose claim to protection under their respective State 
organizations was as perfect as that of any otlier section. 
President Lincoln leaned to the side of mercy and forgive- 
ness, and announced his policy of reconstruction at an early 
period, even before the war terminated. He accepted his 
obligation under the Constitution, to bring the States whose 
functions had been suspended by the war, once more in har- 
mony without doing violence to existing guarant^s or the 
unity of the Government. The war in which we had been 
engaged was not o. foreign war against a separate nationality, 
but a war to put down insurrection among our own people. 
The power of the Government to do this had been fully vin- 
dicated. To argue the non-existence of States as the result 
of this effort, would be to admit tlie weakness of the Govern- 
ment to maintain its own integrity against internal strife 
and domestic insurrection." Again: 

"President Johnson following in the footsteps of his pre- 
decessor, adopted the same plan of reconstruction. He threw 
himself upon the loyal element of the rebellious States — upon 
the white population who alone possessed the right of suf- 
frage under existing laws — extending amnesty in the begin- 



8 

ning to tliose only who had faltered in their loyalty, whose 
status was such as to give reasonable assurance of fidelity in 
the future. 

" Believing as I do, tliat the withdrawal at any period 
after the rebellion commenced, of the prominent and leading 
men connected with it — principally those who held the reins 
of power, on whom its responsibilities mainly rested — would 
have restored peace to the sections, I cannot but accept the 
policy of both Presidents as dictated by the soundest appre- 
ciation of the unmistakable drift of public sentiment and the 
highest obligations of Constitutional duty and practical 
statesmanship. To have refused words of kindness and en- 
couragement to so large a class of our population who are in 
the future to constitute no inconsiderable part of our restored 
Union, and who had announced their willingness to renew 
their pledges of citizenship and loyalty, would have been a 
rebuke damaging to our hoi)es of successful reconstruction. 

In another part of that message I take occasion to say 
"the policy of continuing the government of the Southern 
States in the hands of tiie Anglo-Saxon race began to assume 
shape and prominence in the threats held out by some, that 
no State should resume her former status in the Union with- 
out a transfer of the political power which she had always 
exercised^ to the control of the negro race. This was the 
practical effect of universal negro suffrage, as claimed by some 
of those who are now arrayed against the President's plan 
of reconstruction." 

In conclusion, I say in reference to the reconstruction policy 
of Messrs. Lincoln and Johnson, "I shall hold myself pre- 
pared, witli the sanction of the people of Maryland, to co-ope- 
rate in the plans wiiich he has so wisely inaugurated to 
restore, by all proper encouragement, and at a suitable time, 
the relations of the past and to re-unite our people once more 
in the bonds of a common brotherhood." 

It may create surprise with many, looking at the turn 
which things have since taken in this State, when I refer to 



9 

the fact that these utterances received the sanction of the 
Union party in the popuLar branch of the Legislature, as will 
appear by the following vote: 

In the affirmative, on the resolution endorsing the Mes- 
sage — Messrs. Frazier, Speaker ; Angel, Barron, Brown, 
Clift, Cook, Cronise, Cummings, Darling, Dean, Earey, 
Everhart, Foster, Garrison, Hazen, Hoffman, Hynes, Jones, 
Keefer, King, Kirk, Leaverton, Lee of Baltimore city, Lusby, 
Mackey, McCauley, McCullougli, Miller of Washington, 
Mittag, Norris, Parker, Pennington, Rhinehart, Sherry, 
Slothower, Smith of Allegany, Smith of Frederick, Soper, 
Tull, Valliant, Wardwell, Willis, Zeigler— 43. 

Now let me ask my friends, who has changed? Have I 
gone back upon a single position taken by me in that mes- 
sage ? 

When this war terminated, I felt anxious with all conser- 
vative men to see this country re-established upon a perma- 
nent and enduring basis. The rebels had laid down their 
arras and applied for pardon. I had no bitter animosities 
to cherish and keep alive. To hold so many States and so 
large a class of cmr population by military power, was not only 
impracticable in itself unless at a ruinous cost to the people, 
but directly opposed to the spirit of our institutions. Be- 
sides, I could see no good reason why the people of the States 
should not be again re-united. There were no latent causes 
of danger likely to spring up in the future. They were sub- 
dued and pro^rate, seeking pardon at the hands of a power- 
ful and magnanimous Government. 

It was not our policy to degrade them. They had been 
our brethren in the past, descended from the same common 
stock with ourselves; and if this Union was intended to be 
kept together, were to become a most important part of our 
aggregate population. I speak of the masses — not the lead- 
ers of this rebellion. The leaders are now the only remain- 
ing cause of irritation, because the people have been be- 
trayed and ruined by them; and the sympathy which we 
feel for the masses does not apply with the same force to 
those who were the authors of the troubles which have been 



10 

entailed upon us. But the rebellion once subdued, the States 
were remanded back to all their former Constitutional rights 
as States and integrals of our common system. We had no 
right to say, you shall not be represented in Congress hy 
true and loyal men. The Constitutional Union would no 
longer have existed had the extreme radicals in Congress 
succeeded in holding the States as conquered provinces, and 
not as States in the Union. This Union cannot be divided, 
and when President Johnson by his proclamation announced 
the rebellion as at an end, the Government resumed her 
former relations — each State standing as before the rebellion 
commenced. This policy was not Mr. Johnson's policy 
alone. It was inaugurated by Mr. Lincoln in the case of 
Louisiana and Tennessee and Arkansas, and was steadily 
adhered to by him until the period of his death. It was 
known and approved by the Convention that nominated him 
for the Presidency, and Andrew Johnson for the Vice 
Presidency. Now we are told that Mr. Johnson has de- 
serted his party and the platform on which he was elected. 
And what does this policy mean? It means simply tliat 
now the war is over the States shall have their representation 
in Congress restored to them — not by the recognition of the 
claims of defiant military leaders^ or insolent members of 
rebel Legislatures who were mainly implicated in stirring up 
this strife, but hy true and loyal men — men ivJio are qualified, 
and mean in good faith to stand hy this Government. That is 
the whole theory in a nut-shell. And who supi)ort8 this 
doctrine of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, now that tlie 
rebellion has been so triumphantly put down ? It is sup- 
ported by some of the ablest and most distinguished men in 
the National Union Party. It is supported by the great 
masses of the people, as I think will be found in the Fall 
elections. It is supported by Mr. Seward, the ablest states- 
man in Mr. Johnson's Cabinet, and his no less distinguislied 
colleagues in that body. It is supi)ortcd by Grant and Slier- 
man, through whose bravery the rebellion was brought to a 
close. It is supported by the almost united voice of the army 
and navy. And yet with all this evidence staring us in the lace, 



11 

I am denounced and hunted like a traitor, by these extreme 
radicals, because I have dared to support Mr. Johnson's re- 
construction polic)^, against the revolutionary combinations 
which have been formed, to weaken the powers of the Ad- 
ministration and postpone indefinitely the work of recon- 
struction. 

Upon the subject of our unhappy differences, I do not 
know that I can say any thing, which would not suggest 
itself to prudent and thinking men throughout the State. 
I regret to witness the spectacle of a great Party, such as 
that which has conducted us through the rebellion, tamely 
submitting in so many and cardinal measures of public policy, 
to the dictation of intemperate and ill-judging men. The 
national men of the party should the rather oppose and hold 
in check the ultraisms which are now threatening our de- 
struction. Deeply should I regret, that any thing should 
occur, to separate me from fellowship with the National 
men of the Union Party, with whom I have cordially co-op- 
erated for the past four years, in saving this Union. I can 
see nothing which should provoke any one, either in Con- 
gress or out, to make war upon President Johnson. His 
platform is the same that it has always been. He was elected 
to the office of Vice President of the United States on the 
same ticket with Abraham Lincoln by a Convention of the 
Union Party. He had opposed the rebellion as no other 
man had opposed it. He had suffered in his person and his 
property, and had made sacrifices in the maintenance of 
his principles which gained him the admiration of loyal 
men of all parties and every shade of opinion. His un- 
compromising devotion to his country gave him the nomi- 
nation of that Convention, and resulted in his elevation to 
the high office which he now fills. In his reconstruction 
policy, he did no more than follow in the footsteps of Mr. 
Lincoln. The leading ground of complaint against him, so 
far as I have been able to understand it, was his inability, 
under the obligations of his official oath, to sanction certain 
ultra radical measures whose effect would have been to have 
ignored the existence of the States — placed the negro on a 



12 

ybrccrf basis with the wliitu iimn — nnd inaugurated the uiii- 
versal rij^ht of" suffrage, which wouhl liave precipitated the 
whole Southern and Border States — our own among tlie 
number — into tlie liands of tlie African race. Will Maryland 
find fault with him for this ? 

The persistent effort which is now being made to misrep- 
resent me, is simply disgraceful and unworthy of any party 
having jiretension to truth and honesty. 

I have stated that the issue of negro suffrage in the coming 
Fall campaign was well made and a most vital issue, as I 
believe, in the State of Maryland at the present time. 

I have seen no reason to change my opinion upon this 
point. I entertain the belief that forced negro suffrage* and 
negro equality will destroy the State of Maryland if it does 
not bring ruin upon the negro race. I have always dreaded 
a war of races; and I believe that if this ultra radical faction 
is not jiromptly checked by the popular voice, it cannot fail 
to precipitate such a result. Consider for a moment the 
propositions submitted to the House by Mr. Stevens, and by 
Mr. Sumner to the Senate. When this issue of negro suf- 
frage was made here, these radical men raised their hands in 
horror. They told you that no one advocated negro suffrage 
or negro equality. Wliat, let me ask, have the extreme men 
of this Congress been doing for the past six months? Did 
they not by an overwhelming majority in the popular branch, 
attempt to fasten universal, unqualified, negro suffrage upon 
the District ol" Columbia, in the face of the unanimous pro- 
test of the people? Why is that bill now permitted to sleep ? 
Is it not because tlie firmness and known sentiments of An- 
drew Johnson, arrested it before its final consummation ? 
The attempt to enlarge the Freedman's Bureau Bill was a 
step in the same direction. The freedmen were already bet- 
ter cared for than our own race, under the law as it stood. 
It was still a subsisting law. I was among the first to de- 
nounce this new bill, when brought to the notice of our peo- 
ple by the attcm))t of Mr. Senator Creswell to include the 
State of Maryland, a loyal State with a loyal Governor, in 
the operation of this law. It was one of the series of mea- 



13 

snres in which certain extreme men in Congress had been 
engaged, to degrade the industrial and working classes of the 
border States, by forcing them in direct competition, and 
upon terras of equality, with the negro race. I am the 
friend of the negro and I want to see him protected against 
such partial and unwise legislation. I should have consid- 
ered myself insulted, and my State outraged by the inter- 
position of a military force in the hands of the Freedman's 
Bureau, or any other Bureau, to teach me my duty in giving 
protection to every citizen without regard to race or color to 
supercede the authority, which the i)eople had placed in my 
hands. We have had enough of military interference in the 
State #f Maryland. I have myself been the victim of its 
power and unjust discriminations. IJesides, tlie very men 
who have been employed to protect the negro under tlie old 
law, are now in some instances, enslaving and robbing him 
of his earnings, in order to enrich themselves. I advocatei 
universal emancipation, because 1 believed it to be right in 
the view of God and man. I have been a practical emancipa- 
tionist all my life, and have liberated more slaves, I verily 
believe, before the rebellion broke out, than the whole radi- 
cal party in the City of Baltimore put together. In doing 
this, I had no political object to subserve. I am now pre- 
■ pared to do whatever may be required to protect the negro 
in the full control of his person and his property, and to up- 
hold him in tlie enjoyment of his newly acquired freedom. 

I will defy any one to show, that there is now, or ever has 
been, since the Proclamation of Emancipation, any systematic 
or combined purpose \n the State of Maryland^ to interfere 
with his freedom, whiclithe civil authorities could not control. 
The New Constitution made him free long before many of the 
States had acted. At no time, however, have I ever advoca- 
ted an amalgamation of the two races, or believed that it 
would be practicable to invest the negro with the power to 
hold office, or to share with the white race the governmental 
control of tlie country. 

I do not know upon what principle of justice or humanity 
we are called upon to sliare this Government, in the political 



14 

rights which we enjoy under it, witli the negro race. It is a 
race wholly and entirely distinct in many of its characteristics 
ironi our own. They can establisli a government lor them- 
selves, if they desire it, just as we have created this. The 
injustice of bringing tliem here has been wiped out by restor- 
ing them to their freedom, and protecting them as all other 
citizens are protected. But here we must pause, if we could 
regard the comfort and safety of these unfortunate people. 
Human prejudices are hard to be overcome, and a war of 
races is not one of tiiose impossible events wliich in the 
present aspect of things, we may turn away from without 
alarm. I hope I may be mistaken in this view. 

Another of these measures in the interest of negro »ifFrage 
and forced negro equality, was the Civil Rights Bill, vetoed 
V)y President Johnson, and passed by the Constitutional ma- 
jority in both Houses of Congress. It is not my purpose at 
this time to refer to the extraordinary provisions of that Bill. 
— I am not opposed to tiie amplest protection to the negro. — 
Tlie people understand what that Bill means — and every day 
will make it more and more apparent. Speaking of the sub- 
ject of citizenship, Judge Curtis, in one of the ablest opin- 
ions ever delivered in the Supreme Court declares, "that the 
Constitution has left the States to determine what })ersons 
born within their respective limits acquire by birth citizen- 
ship of the United States." He further declares that Con- 
gress has no such power, it belonging exclusively to the 
States. This effort, by Congress, to confer by law the right 
of Federal citizensliip upon the negro race, is fraught, in my 
opinion, if recognized, with Jhe most momentous conse- 
quences. It may settle forever the question of negro suffrage 
and negro equality — State Laws and State Constitutions to 
the contrary, notwithstanding. Its effect may be of doing by 
indirection, what it would be hopeless to attempt just now 
by open, avowed and expressed legislation. If the negro is 
declared by the proposed amendment to the Constitution to 
be a citizen of the United States, with all the "privileges and 
immunities" of such citizens, and Congress has the power to 
enforce this provision by "appropriate legislation," what is to 



15 

prevent these extreme men, the moment they get the power, 
from declaring these "privileges and immunities," to extend 
to the privilege of voting — the right to serve on juries and 
the I'ight to hold office? What will the word ^'tvMte," 
embodied in our State Constitution, avail to protect us 
against negro suffrage, and the right of the negro to do 
what ever the white man may do? 

But the report of the Committee of Fifteen is even "more 
pointed and significant. It presents to the State of Maryland a 
choice between negro suffrage on one hand, and the loss of a 
valuable portion of her representation on the other. These ultra 
radical men, not satisfied with the great moral revolution which 
has been accon;plished by the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
persist in their effort to force the negro into political and 
social relations with the white man. It can never be done, in 
ray opinion, without the most serious consequences. The effect 
of the enlarged Freedman's Bureau Bill, would have been to have 
subjugated the whole Border States, in the interest of an in- 
tolerable fanaticism. The State of Maryland, just emerged from 
the abuses and outrages of an irresponsible military despotism, 
was to be again thrown back in its march of pacification and 
reconstruction — the writ of Habeas Corpus, that great safeguard 
of the liberties of the people in time of peace, was to be again 
suspended, without the remotest pretext of necessity — your elec- 
tions were to be controlled and directed by military, influence, 
and the people were to be brought to realize the threat, that 
sooner or later we would be compelled to touch our hats to the 
negro. 

And what did this Bill design to do for the gallant men of our 
own race who have fought your battles and saved your country. 
It makes no similar provision for them. It lavishes millions 
upon the negro. Our soldiers have asked for bounties which 
they have fairly earned. Are they not as much entitled to aid as 
the freedmen.'' Have they made fewer sacrifices ? Have they 
fought less bravely.'' The widow and the orphan — what did it 
propose for them.? Twenty, nay, forty millions of money were 
to be lavished upon the negro. Do these extreme men suppose 
that the people of this country will rest quiet much longer under 



16 

such gross and ll^igrant injustice nnd insult? And yet they 
appeal to tlie soldiers to sustain them by their votes. This 
theory of negro suffrage may do very well tor the States where 
there are comparatively no negroes to be dealt with. J5ut how 
does it affect us here in Maryland.^ We have now nearly 
200,000 negroes within our borders. Immigration is flowing in 
upon us in a steady current. Proclaim negro suffrage — take 
from the Stales, as proposed in the rejected Civil Rights Bill, 
the power to manage their domestic concerns — and in a very 
few years you will have a preponderance of the negro race. 
Maryland is their Paradise now: it would be much more 
templing with these increased and superadded inducements. This 
is no forced theory. Can it be supposed that you or any 
other Marylanders can look without concern upon the con- 
summation of such a line of policy? — your Constitution sub- 
verted — your State de{)rived of her legitimate powers — your 
people degraded — and the negro virtually placed over your 
heads ? 

It is the custom with the leaders of this radical faction, to 
denounce all men as traitors and disunionists who do not agree 
with them upon every issue, however repugnant, which they are 
trying to force upon this country. They charge me with a pur- 
pose to precipitate the State at once, and by an arbitrary assump- 
tion of power, into the hands of those who have taken arms 
against us-, and have made themselves offensive in this rebellion. 

I denounce it as untrue in every particular. They know that 
I am and have always been opposed to any such effort. In 
regard to the Registry Law, about which so much has been said, 
I am now v.here I stood in my annual message to the Legisla- 
ture in January last. As the p]xecutive of the State, I shall do 
my duly in executing that as well as all other laws upon your 
statute book : but I shall take care, so far as my influence ex- 
tends, that the Registration Act is not made the instrument of 
degradation to our peoj)le, in the hands cf vindictive and radical 
agents, to force negro suffrage and negro equality upon us. I 
shall see thai it is fairly, impartially, and justly, administered, by 
the appointment of men of undoubted Union antecedents and 
unquestioned loyalty, in the spirit in which it was enacted by 



17 

the Legislature, and not of intolerance and oppression, of which, 
I regret to say, there has been too much in the past. 

This cry of disunion — of fraternizing with traitors — is the sys- 
tem of jugglery by which they hope to inflame the public mind 
and withdraw attention from their own short-comings. If you 
cannot sanction the Bill imposing universal negro suffrage upon 
the helpless people of the District of Columbia, against their 
consent, (ignored by Congress,) — if you cannot approve the en- 
larged Freedman's Bureau Bill, entailing $20,000,000 of expense 
upon the country — placing an irresponsible military despotism 
over your people, without the pretext of necessity, (which failed 
to be sustained,) — if yo i cannot approve the sentiments of their 
great champion, Senator Wilson, in his speech upon negro suf- 
frage and negro equality, at the meeting of his colored friends 
a few evenings since in this city — if you cannot concur in all the 
features of the Civil Rights Bill or the reconstruction measures 
of the Committee of Fifteen, (already repudiated by Congress,) 
you are denounced as traitors and disunionists, and set upon by the 
whole pack of disorganizing fanatics from one end of the country 
to the other. This system of vulgar abuse has no terrors for 
me. The Union men of the State of Maryland know my ante- 
cedents, and I may well aflbrd to await the calm judgm.ent of the 
people in the face of all their denuncia'.ions. They talk of 
treachery to the party and my obligations to the radical men of 
this State for the position which I now occupy. I owe no obli- 
gations to any such faction. The conservative men to whom I 
owe my election are still my friends. The masses of the people 
have not deserted me. These radical men were signally rebuked 
and overwhelmed in the gubernatorial canvass, and they gave 
me a reluctant vole only when they could no longer have their 
own way. In the excess of their bitterness, they threaten now 
that they will give their countenance to any one else, even a 
Democrat, for whom they profess a holy horror. This is by no 
means a matter of surprise to me, when I know that their cham- 
pion in the last House of Delegates, approached the recognized 
leader of the Democratic party atid proposed a coalition with 
him, to defeat the resolutions endorsing President Johnson, after 



18 

having fiiiled with another gentleman of the same party. These 
gentlemen are not deceiving me by dealing in such threats. 

Whetlier these extreme negro suffrage and negro equality 
radicals are to rule me and my friends out of the Union 
Party, because of our utter disgust of their manoeuvres to 
win the State over to their interests, will be for the people 
to determine. I ask no favors at their hands — I have no 
dread of their power, and I wish them to understand this most 
distinctly. The attempt to create false is.sues — to raise the 
cry of fraternization with Copperheads, Democrats, Disunion- 
ists, because I dare to support the policy of President John- 
son and his cabinet, is simply contemptible, come from what 
source it may. The credulous who are unaccustomed to 
these tricks may be blinded in the beginning, but their eyes 
will be thoroughly opened before this canvass ends. Senator 
Wilson in his speech a few evenings since, which I could 
wish for his own sake had been a little more temperate, has 
sufficiently explained the platform on which he stands. Do 
these men here repudiate him? Will they dare to come out 
boldly and denounce the doctrines which he has endeavored 
to inculcate? Will they tell the people of Maryland that 
the party who voted for negro suffrage in the District 
of Columbia are not ready, whenever they have the power, 
to do the same thing over again. They insist that negro 
suff'rage is no issue in this State. Is it not high time that it 
should be made an issue, and that those who are in accord 
with this negro suff'rage and forced negro equality party 
should be made to stand up and be tried upon it. 

The reconstruction and universal suff'rage agitators held 
a meeting in Faneuil Hall a few days ago, in which some of 
the gentlemen who have been canvassing our State with 
Messrs. Thomas, Creswell and others, participated. This 
meeting was presided over by the present Governor of Mas- 
sachusetts. The following were among the resolutions 
adopted: 

"Resolvedy that the sectional alienations and animosities 
which have so long disturbed the republic, ending in civil 



19 

war, had their origin in the denial of equal civil and 'political 
rights to all men before the law, and that speedy and lasting 
prosperity and peace can only be secured hy guaranteeing to 
every citizen, without regard to color or race, equal civil and 
political rights," Mr. Stokes stated that in less time than 
twelve months, the negro would have the privilege of voting 
in Tennessee. Mr. Boutwell said: "He believed that there 
never could be any reconstruction until the rights of the 
negro were granted to him, which were the elective franchise 
and eligibility to office." 

But, fellow citizens, my great dependence after all, in 
averting the danger which now hangs over us, is the practi- 
cal good sense and sound judgment of the freedman himself. 
Excited as he is and must be by demagogues and fanatics, 
he is hardly permitted to follow his own counsels. You talk 
to hira about his right of suffrage, in his present ignorant 
condition. What doe^he know or care about the use of the 
ballot? Some time ago a distinguished leader of this radi- 
cal negro suffrage party said in the Maryland Institute, that 
the most beautiful spectacle he had ever witnessed was a 
negro girl at the head of her class in one of the Normal 
Schools of Massachusetts, leading a number of young ladies 
of our own race, and appropriating the honors of the 
institution. This may be refreshing to this gentleman's 
eye, but it would not strike all with the same enthusiasm 
here. The humblest mechanic and working man would turn 
away from it in disgust. 

It is their purpose to attempt to bring about the same state 
of things in our public schools in Maryland ? Senator Wil- 
son, in his speech at the Douglass Institute, as reported in 
the daily papers said, that for his wife and his child he de- 
sired perfect equality with the negro. Are we prepared now 
to place our wives and our children in any such forced rela- 
tions? With what propriety do these people come here to 
the State of Maryland, to stir up strife between these races, 
who are now living in perfect harmony together. They can 
do what they please in their own State — we have never 
interfered with or questioned the right of a State to manage 



\0 

its own domestic concerns — give the negro the right of 
suffrage, introduce liim into their fiuuilies, if they please, 
but they have no right to dictate to ua what we shall do 
here. A short time since a negro lawyer came to Balti- 
more from Massachusetts, sent no doubt by some of these 
agitators^ to test the value of the Civil Rights Bill. He 
attempted to thrust liis colored friends into rail road cars, 
where our own peo{)le are not permitted to go, sued out 
writs ol" injunction to jirevL'nt tlie running of the city passen- 
ger railway, a[)peared in our courts and"- liad a good time 
generally in his defiant career. The elfect of this r.ifsli ad- 
venture may be inferied from the following card, from Mr. 
Isaac Myers, chairman: 

A Card. — At a meeting of the colored citizens of Balti- 
more, held Wednesday, May 23d, 1866, the following reso- 
lution was unanimously adopted: 

Whereas, There is now in this city a person calling liim- 

self Bradly, represented to be a lawyer of some note, 

from Massachusetts, whose only object is to excite and agi- 
tate the public mind upon questions belonging exclusively 
to the colored citizens of Maryland; therefore, be it 

Bcsolved, That we denounce the action of the aforesaid 
Bradly, and deuuind that he let the colored citizens of Balti- 
more attend to their own business, in their own time, and in 
their own way. Isaac Myers. Chairman. 

I regret that a similar hint had not been administered 
to Senator "Wilson, whose inflammatory teachings, and gra- 
tuitous attack upon President Johnson and the Executive of 
this State, placed his colored iriends iti the position of com- 
plimenting him by a handsome testimonial for assaulting in 
violent and abusive epithets, those from whom they were 
daily receiving evidences of kindness and protection. 

Fellow citizens, these negro suffrage and forced negro 
equality men must not sliut their eyes ui)on the damaging 
effect of their dangerous and inopportune teachings. Wliile 
all good men in the State ol Maryland are doing their utter- 



21 

most to harmonize the races by moderate counsels and kind 
treatment, they are met by adverse influences over which they 
have no control, and which, sooner or later, may involve 
responsibilities which may well cause them to hesitate. The 
freedmen here in Maryland, under the full protection of our 
laws and the kind sympathies of our people, I believe, would 
prefer to stop this agitation, for the present at least. But 
these demagogues and fanatics must reap their harvest, even 
at the cost of the embittered feeling which they are provoking 
between the races. 1 warn them now of the responsibility 
which rests upon them. If they are the friends of the freed- 
men, which they profess to be, they will leave suffrage and 
equality to work their own way, without c ercive legislation. 
I deprecate these efforts to stimulate premature agitation 
whicli is already leading to results which every true friend 
of the freedraan must look upon with regret. The position 
of the State of Maryland, I repeat again, is very different 
from that of the States north of us, where they ha»ve compara- 
tively no negroes and are not likely from natural causes to 
have any. They tell us the white man greatly underrates 
himself if he admits the power of the negro to get the upper- 
hand. But how are we to help ourselves with the influx of 
negro immigration steadily pouring in upon us? If the 
negro gets the numerical power, a result certain to take 
place, with the temptation of social and political equality, 
forced upon us by Congress, where are the people of Mary- 
land? The wealthy and independent may flee to other 
States, but what is to become of the mechanic and work- 
ingman, whose all is invested here? Are they prepared to 
ado])t the terms socially and politically, which Mr. Wil- 
Bon has announced himself so anxious to bring about? 

The interest of all parties and all classes in this country 
is involved in the speedy reconstruction of a cordial Union 
between all the States. The war is over and we have nothing 
to fear from such a policy; on the contrary, we have every 
thing to lose by keeping alive a spirit of sectional alienation. 
Your country is now suffering — your own city is suffering 
commercially, from the doubt and uncertainty which hangi 



22 

over the future. The business relations of the country will 
not be resumed until the States are brought back and clothed 
with their constitutional functions. We have other matters 
to look after more important than these struggles for party- 
power and party ascendancy. We have foreign enemies to 
deal with, demanding tlie united strength of our wliole peo- 
ple, North and South. There is Maximillian, we are not 
free from that complication. If he is tardy it may be neces- 
sary for this Government to help him to get out of Mexico. 
There is Spain, it is high time that she should be taught 
that she lives in a Christian age, and will not be permitted 
to violate the laws of common humanity, against American 
citizens domiciled in a foreign land, or any where on this 
Continent. There are outstanding accounts with England 
and France, wliich the present unsettled condition of Euro- 
pean affairs may swell into proportions. It is the more 
necessary, therefore, that our people should be united, and 
that we should keep ourselves in position for any emergency 
which may be likely to occur. 

Congress has thought proper to carry the Civil Rights Bill 
over the veto of the President. He has discharged his duty 
as he understood it. by interposing his veto, and it was the 
right of Congress to do just what Congress did. The respon- 
sibility is now with Congress. The President will execute 
this law, I doubt not, in good faith, and leave the people to 
deal with it through the ballot-box. The President has done 
no more than he had a right to do, as a co-ordinate branch 
of the Government. They cannot find in this any good rea- 
son to drive him fr©m the ranks of the Union party, with 
which he has heretofore co-operated, nor can they prove that 
he has ignored any cardinal principle upon which he came 
into power. If he has been guilty of too much leniency and 
forbearance towards the authors of this rebellion, it may be 
placed to the account of his. overweening desire to allay the 
irritations of the past, and to see these States again reunited. 

I shall stand by the people of my State. I shall do all in 

my power to save them from insult and degradation. I shall 

•co-operate with conservative men, in averting the ruin which 



23 

is now impending over us. I believe that before the adjourn- 
ment of the next Congress, unless the conservative elements 
of this country shall become aroused to the dangers of the 
situation, in spite of the protestations of this radical faction, 
we shall have universal, unconditional negro suffrage and 
forced negro equality , the law of the land, and Maryland will 
enter her protest, as she will surely do sooner or later, when 
the power will have passed into other hands and she finds 
herself the victim of her own unsuspecting credulity. 

In conclusion, fellow-citizens, let me warn you of the 
dangers of your present situation. I have served you faith- 
fully for the last twenty years in many positions in which 
you have placed me. I can have no motive to mislead you 
now. You have vast interests at stake. Stand firm to your 
principles as Unconditional Union men. Be not intimidated 
by the threads of demagogues and fanatics. The men who 
are trying to lull you into security upon the negro question, 
'are not the true friends of the State of Maryland, or the great 
national interests of the country. They have already 
shaken the public? confidence in the great party which car- 
ried us through this war. If we would make that party 
strong, ive must either hold these extreme radical men in check 
or come out from among them altogether. Negro suffrage is 
not dead. It only awaits the election by the people, in the 
coming autumn, of a radical Congress. I shall consider it 
my du\v as an Unconditional Union man, committed to the 
doctrinQ that none but loyal men shall ride over us, to guard 
against rash and inconsiderate counsels. I shall recognize 
no new party in the interest of extreme radicalism. I be- 
long to the party of the Union. The eflfort by a handful 
of men to break up the Union party in this State can never 
succeed. The Convention which met here a i'ew days ago, 
representing a mere fraction of our population, ought to con- 
vince you of this. Congress has already shown unmistaka- 
ble signs of restlessness under the teachings of Messrs. Sum- 
ner and Stevens. They have already drawn themselves in 
closer affiliation with the President. Let the Conservative 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



24 



014 310 084 4< 



Union men of Maryland frown upon this attempt to disor- 
f:janize and break up the party. The representatives of the 
Unconditional Union men of this State, who are called to 
assemble in this City on the 25th July, will present a fitting 
op])ortunity to rebuke, as they must do, the extreme radi- 
calism which is now threatening our destruction, by enlarged 
and national views of our present complications, and to place 
the Union Party upon ground more permanent, more endur- 
ing, and more impregnable than ever. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 310 084 4 



